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Two Honorary Fellows appointed Judicial Commissioners

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Lord Justice John Gillen and Sir John Griffith Williams have been appointed by the Prime Minister as two of the 13 Judicial Commissioners who continue the approval work of the former Surveillance Commissioners, and are considering whether they agree with Ministers’ decisions to authorise intrusive investigatory powers before they can come into effect.

The Commissioners assist the Investigatory Powers Commissioner (IPC) in overseeing the exercise of a range of investigatory powers by public authorities, including the interception of communications, the acquisition and retention of communications data, equipment interference, intrusive surveillance, property interference, directed surveillance, covert human intelligence sources, and bulk personal datasets.

The Rt Hon. Sir John Gillen is a serving Lord Justice of Appeal in Northern Ireland and a former Senior Queen’s Bench Division Judge for Northern Ireland. In the last two years he led a Civil and Family Justice Review in that jurisdiction (the two Reviews having been published on 6 September 2017). Previously he served as a High Court Judge in the Family, Judicial Review and Queen’s Bench Divisions.

The Hon. Sir John Griffith Williams is now retired. He practiced at the Bar of England & Wales from 1969, was appointed silk in 1985 and a Deputy High Court judge in 1993. He was formerly Recorder of Cardiff until his appointment as a High Court judge of the Queen's Bench Division. He was a Presiding Judge on the Wales and Chester Circuit and is a judicial member of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission. He sits as a deputy High Court judge in the Court of Appeal Criminal Division and the Crown Court.